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Pakistan: Gang-Rape, Murder of a Pakistani Christian Girl

Letter by William Gomes Salem-News.com

Local media reports that the murdered Christian girl, Muqadas Kainat, was the oldest of seven children.

Muqadas Kainat. Photo: LEAD Family Pakistan

(SALEM) - According to local media reports, a 12-year old Pakistani girl who went into a field to relieve herself was gang raped by several men and murdered just less than two weeks ago. At this point, police have not made any arrests.

There are few things more disturbing in this world that the wanton abuse of a child; particularly under these worst of circumstances.

A rape is what allegedly caused the burning ethnic tension in Burma that has led to large scale retaliation against the Muslim community there, and murder.

Local media reports that The murdered Christian girl, Muqadas Kainat, was the oldest of seven children of the kiln worker and his wife,

She was attacked in Sahiwal city on the 14th August 2012. It is tragic for so many reasons, but the context is critical; only 1% of Pakistan is Christian. Complicating matters is the fact that several Christian girls in this remote area have been raped and forced to both marry into the Muslim community and abandon their own religion, human rights groups report.

This sad story did not gain sufficient media attention; so now it must. In keeping with that, there is a history in this part of Pakistan according to the Christian community, of local authorities failing to investigate cases of rape or other violence against Christians, often for fear of influential Muslims or militants.

In his letter below, our Human Rights Ambassador, William Nicholas Gomes, asks Mr. Raja Pervez Ashraf, Prime Minister of Pakistan in Islamabad, to investigate the incident and prosecute the perpetrators and insure the safety and security of the victim’s family.

I am William Nicholas Gomes, Human Rights Ambassador for Salem-News.com.

I have been informed by BosNewsLife Asia Service with reporting by BosNewsLife's Stefan J. Bos and Pakistan Christian Post that Muqadas Kainat, a 12 years old Christian girl was attacked in Sahiwal city, in the country's east-central Punjab province, on August 14 when people celebrated Pakistan's annual Independence Day, confirmed the Pakistan Christian Congress (PCC) party Monday, August 27.

The incident happened when the girl "went in the fields to pee", the PCC said in its online publication Pakistan Christian Post. "She was gang raped and murdered by give Muslims and never returned home."

Nazir S. Bhatti, the president of PCC, told BosNewsLife he is upset that nearly two weeks after the reported rape nobody has been taken into police custody.

'HOLY UNIVERSE'

Muqadas Kainat, which means 'Holy Universe' in English, was reportedly raped while her father Rafique Masih was visiting his wife who was hospitalized for appendix problems.

The murdered girl was the oldest of seven children of the kiln worker and his wife, PCC said.

A Muslim clerk informed Masih that his daughter's human remains were likely laying in nearby fields, prompting a search involving her father and villagers.

Police recovered Muqadas' human remains on August 15, PCC said, adding that a "postmortem...proved that she was gang raped and later strangled to death by five men."

Local police registered a complaint, known as a 'First Information Report', against the suspected rapists and killers, but there were no reports of detentions Monday, August 27.

REMOTE DISTRICT

"Shaiwal is a remote district of Punjab province of Pakistan and the gang rape and murder of Muqadas Kainat failed to attract media attention or the rush of Non Governmental Organization workers," PCC said.

There are complaints among Pakistan's Christian community that authorities are often unwilling to investigate cases of rape or other violence against Christians, often for fear of influential Muslims or militants.

A Christian youth leader in area, whose name was not identified for security reasons, is helping the girl's impoverished family "to ensure justice", PCC said.

Several Christian girls are known to have been raped and forced to marry and embrace Islam in Pakistan, according to rights groups.

Please note that I have written separate letter to UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief and Independent Expert on minority issues calling for their intervention into this matter.

I therefore urge you to investigate the incident and prosecute the perpetrators and insure the safety and security of the victim’s family.

Salem-News.com Human Rights Ambassador William Nicholas Gomes is a Bangladeshi journalist, human rights activist and author was born on 25 December, 1985 in Dhaka. As an investigative journalist he wrote widely for leading European and Asian media outlets.

He is also active in advocating for free and independent media and journalists’ rights, and is part of the free media movement, Global Independent Media Center – an activist media network for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate telling of the truth. He worked for Italian news agency Asianews.it from year 2009 to 2011, on that time he was accredited as a free lance journalist by the press information department of Bangladesh. During this time he has reported a notable numbers of reports for the news agency which were translated into Chinese and Italian and quoted by notable number of new outlets all over the world.He, ideologically, identifies himself deeply attached with anarchism. His political views are often characterized as “leftist” or “left-wing,” and he has described himself as an individualist anarchist.